Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Conference on Decision and Game Theory for Security

GameSec 2018: Decision and Game Theory for Security pp 465–485Cite as

Towards True Decentralization: A Blockchain Consensus Protocol Based on Game Theory and Randomness

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 11199))

Abstract

One of the fundamental characteristics of blockchain technology is the consensus protocol. Most of the current consensus protocols are PoW (Proof of Work) based, or fixed-validators based. Nevertheless, PoW requires massive computational effort, which results in high energy and computing resources consumption. Alternatively, fixed-validators protocols rely on fixed, static validators responsible for validating all newly proposed blocks, which opens the door for adversaries to launch several attacks on these validators such as DDoS and eclipse attacks. In this paper, we propose a truly decentralized consensus protocol that does not require PoW and randomly employs a different set of different size of validators on each block’s proposal. Additionally, our protocol utilizes a game theoretical model to enforce the honest validators’ behavior by rewarding honest validators and penalizing dishonest ones. We have analyzed our protocol and shown that it mitigates various attacks that current protocols suffer from.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Alzahrani, N., Bulusu, N.: Securing pharmaceutical and high-value products against tag reapplication attacks using nfc tags. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP). IEEE (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Alzahrani, N., Bulusu, N.: Block-supply chain: a new anti-counterfeiting supply chain using NFC and blockchain. In: Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains for Distributed Systems, pp. 30–35. ACM (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Buchman, E.: Tendermint: byzantine fault tolerance in the age of blockchains. Ph.D. thesis (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Efraimidis, P.S., Spirakis, P.G.: Weighted random sampling with a reservoir. Inf. Process. Lett. 97(5), 181–185 (2006)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Eyal, I.: The miner’s dilemma. In: 2015 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 89–103. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gilad, Y., Hemo, R., Micali, S., Vlachos, G., Zeldovich, N.: Algorand: scaling byzantine agreements for cryptocurrencies. In: Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, pp. 51–68. ACM (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gorbunov, S.: Pure Proof-of-Stake Blockchains. https://medium.com/algorand

  8. Heilman, E., Kendler, A., Zohar, A., Goldberg, S.: Eclipse attacks on bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network. In: USENIX Security Symposium, pp. 129–144 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hyperledger: hyperledger/fabric. https://github.com/hyperledger/fabric/tree/v0.6

  10. Johnson, B., Laszka, A., Grossklags, J., Vasek, M., Moore, T.: Game-theoretic analysis of DDoS attacks against bitcoin mining pools. In: Böhme, R., Brenner, M., Moore, T., Smith, M. (eds.) FC 2014. LNCS, vol. 8438, pp. 72–86. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44774-1_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Kiayias, A., Russell, A., David, B., Oliynykov, R.: Ouroboros: a provably secure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol. In: Katz, J., Shacham, H. (eds.) CRYPTO 2017. LNCS, vol. 10401, pp. 357–388. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63688-7_12

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Kwon, J.: Tendermint: Consensus without mining, 18 May 2014

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kwon, J., Buchman, E.: Cosmos: a network of distributed ledgers (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Luu, L., Saha, R., Parameshwaran, I., Saxena, P., Hobor, A.: On power splitting games in distributed computation: the case of bitcoin pooled mining. In: 2015 IEEE 28th Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF), pp. 397–411. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Mackey, T.K., Nayyar, G.: A review of existing and emerging digital technologies to combat the global trade in fake medicines. Expert Opin. Drug Saf. 16(5), 587–602 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Nojoumian, M., Golchubian, A., Njilla, L., Kwiat, K., Kamhoua, C.: Incentivizing blockchain miners to avoid dishonest mining strategies by a reputation-based paradigm. In: IEEE Computing Conference (CC). IEEE, London (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Pilkington, M.: 11 blockchain technology: principles and applications. In: Research Handbook on Digital Transformations (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Rosenfeld, M.: Analysis of bitcoin pooled mining reward systems. arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.4980 (2011)

  19. Sheridan, K.: Blockchain All the Rage But Comes With Numerous Risks. https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities--threats/blockchain-all-the-rage-but-comes-with-numerous-risks/d/d-id/1332038

  20. Xu, D., Xiao, L., Sun, L., Lei, M.: Game theoretic study on blockchain based secure edge networks (2017)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97207, USA

    Naif Alzahrani & Nirupama Bulusu

Authors
  1. Naif Alzahrani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nirupama Bulusu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naif Alzahrani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Linda Bushnell

  2. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Radha Poovendran

  3. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Tamer Başar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Alzahrani, N., Bulusu, N. (2018). Towards True Decentralization: A Blockchain Consensus Protocol Based on Game Theory and Randomness. In: Bushnell, L., Poovendran, R., Başar, T. (eds) Decision and Game Theory for Security. GameSec 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11199. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01554-1_27

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01554-1_27

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01553-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01554-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation